Version strings

[Hal Murray]

Matthew.Selsky at twosigma.com said:
> Yes, what if we build the version from the VERSION file (+ last git commit
> short hash + BUILD_EPOCH, only when building from git)?

> This would avoid having to calculate the distance to the tag, etc, that
> autorevision currently does.

> The BUILD_EPOCH would still only be set at configure time, so you'd need to
> do "waf configure build" after each edit, instead of just "waf build".

> Does that simply things enough, while still remaining usable for devs? 

I don't quite understand what you have in mind.  Having to configure and 
build after each edit would be too slow.

If we are going to get a reproducible checksum when building from tarballs, 
then the BUILD_EPOCH has to live in a file.  Can I copy the code that updates 
that file?  Will waf build then rebuild whatever needs rebuilding?  If so, 
I'll put the update step in my script and I'll be happy.  I can manually 
delete stuff there too if waf isn't smart enough to rebuild the right stuff.


-- 
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